God’s wonderful Word actually begins before the beginning in Genesis 1:1. The Lord lets us in on the pre-planning that occurred in the divine counsels before time’s clock began ticking. He has “made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself” (Eph. 1:9). We are heaven’s intimates.
Matthew cites Psalm 78:2 and applies it to the parabolic ministry of the Lord: “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Mt. 13:35). In other words, the spoken ministry of Christ actually told out the confidences of the divine Persons, secrets kept in the heart of God through thousands of years of human history.
What was God doing before He made man? We dare not speculate where God is silent, but He has revealed ten statements regarding His pre-time activities. As such, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory” (1 Cor. 2:7).
The Lord pressed Job, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding…Who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4, 6-7). Man is a relative latecomer to the process. When he arrived, the stage was already built on which the great drama of redemption would be played out. The lights (with both bright and dim settings) had been positioned above, set against the velvet curtains of the heavens.
1. The central figure in the supreme love story of the ages had prepared His entry long before He came: “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Pet. 1:20). In order to accomplish this key part, He veiled His true identity as Writer of the script and came in the lowly garb of a carpenter from Nazareth.
2. Of His return to His former place of honor, He prayed: “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (Jn. 17:5). While the Lord Jesus lived on this planet, His glory, though veiled, shone through. John wrote: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14). But this must be different from the glory of which the Son spoke in John 17. It is a glory unrevealed in time.
On His return to earth, He will “appear …in glory” (Col. 3:4) and we shall bask in that glory with Him. What a day that will be!
3. Before time, the main acts had already been written. The role of King had been given to the only One worthy to wear the diadem of the universe, and His kingdom was secured before ever an angel rejoiced or a demon raged in His august presence: “Then shall the King say…Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt. 25:34).
4. The deeply moving scene at the center of the plot was as good as done before the first star flamed through the night sky, for the Lord of life and glory is “…the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). Isn’t it comforting to know that God had the ultimate safety net in place long before sinful man needed it? He is not willing that any should perish.
5. Before any debt had accumulated against the human race, the Lord had calculated the mighty cost and by matchless grace agreed to pay it in full. “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9).
6. With what holy intimacy we listen in on the Saviour’s prayer to His Father, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world” (Jn. 17:24). It is the only time the Lord Jesus expressed His own will. And what does He want? You and me! With Him! In glory! Forever!
7. What shall we be doing there? Finding out the infinite reasons that the Father has loved the Son since before the world’s foundation. The Father will show us how to love the Son as He deserves. It has been the purpose of the Father all along to have a holy, blameless family in heaven, chosen in the Son to love the Son with Him: “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Eph. 1:4).
8. By His foreknowledge the divine Record-keeper has guaranteed safe passage for those who trust Him. There is not a shade of doubt concerning the eternal security of those who would receive God’s way of salvation. Known before time, the assurance of their journey through time and into eternity is sealed with the divine autograph. Every believer is included in the number of those whose names are “…written in the book of life from the foundation of the world…” (Rev. 17:8).
9. This life, eternal life, the very life of God, was a pre-temporal offer. “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2). The Father knew what it would cost Him as the Great Planner in the giving of His only Son. The Son knew what it would cost Him as the Great Sacrifice in His descent “even to death on a cross.” And what has it cost the Holy Spirit as the Great Indweller, not only coming into a sinful world as Christ did, but into a sinning Church? He is the seal, the earnest, the guarantee that God will not give up on us, and will bring us safely to the land where our names are inscribed in heaven’s handwriting. We are as sure of being in heaven as those names which are already there.
10. But it is not only as individual believers that the Godhead in the divine counsels considered us before the foundations of the world. Paul declared his two-fold commission in these words: “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:8-9).
Gospel truth and Church truth were the two pillars of Paul’s ministry. And just as the gospel was prepared before time began, so the Church in general, and I in particular was not a second-best alternative after Israel “stumbled” (Rom. 11:11). And just as each individual is secure in the fact of our final destination “ever…with the Lord,” so the future of the Church is as certain as the eternal promise of God: “Now to Him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began” (Rom. 16:25).
These pre-time revelations are not recorded to satisfy our curiosity. They reveal to us three glorious truths:
i) the meticulous nature of the divine plan;
ii) the eternal greatness of divine love and grace;
iii) the absolutely secure position of every believer.
Thus before human history there was eternal reality. God’s eternity flows with all its gracious fullness into man’s time-world. David may well express our sentiments when he writes: “Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto Thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered” (Ps 40:5).
But it wasn’t just the vast number of God’s eternal thoughtfulness that thrilled David. He also delighted in the intricacy and complexity of them: “O Lord, how great are Thy works! and Thy thoughts are very deep” (Ps. 92:5). Paul expands on the idea in Romans 11,
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are His judgments,
And His ways past finding out!
For who hath known the mind of the Lord?
Or who hath been His counselor?
Or who hath first given to Him,
And it shall be recompensed unto him again?
For of Him, and through Him, and to Him,
Are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”
(vv. 33-36)
There was one thing more on David’s heart, and it is this that stirs us to join him in worshipping our God together: “How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God!” (Ps. 139:17).